10 Questions: Everything Delver

Mike FloresThursday, April 05, 2012

1. What do you think is in the Helvault?

2. What do "good players" think of Delver of Secrets?

A week or so ago I was playing in the StarCityGames.com Invitational and got paired against Grand Prix champion Dave Shiels. We were 2–0 at the time, and there were a fair number of well-known players sitting near us.

Look to the left, look to the right, there was Joshua Ravitz (who would go on to make Top 8 of the Invitational), well-known writer Larry Swasey, and even more well-known writer Gerry Thompson. We chuckled, as every single player we recognized had a Delver of Secrets in play (including each of us).

In a relatively short time, Delver of Secrets has grown into one of the most influential creatures—influential Magic: The Gathering cards—in recent memory (maybe history). Tongue-in-cheek as its presentation might be, this article is about all the different ways you can run into a Delver of Secrets; how to know whichDelver of Secrets you are up against; and what the differences, advantages, and incentives are to the different builds.

I don't even know if this is a controversial statement at this point, but I think Delver of Secrets is not just good, but both the best creature and the best card in Standard.

3. What DID good players think of Delver of Secrets?

This is something that I was interested in and a question I asked myself when I first realized how influential Delver of Secrets was becoming.

... did writers (in their various "Innistrad review"-type articles on the websites various) realize at the outset how good Delver might become?

Quiet Speculation:

"This is extremely marginal but if it's possible to set this up as an early 3/2 flier consistently, it may see some play."

ChannelFireball.com:

Luis Scott-Vargas rated Delver of Secrets a "2" ("niche card"), focusing on the card's awesome flavor (and I think we can all agree there is some nice Jeff Goldblum going on on the card), although he did speculate that it might be "sweet" and possibly where.

TCGPlayer.com:

Conley Woods was the most optimistic about the Insectile Aberration-to-be, rating the one-drop a"3" (his "backbone of Standard" level, comparable to Makeshift Mannequin or Mind Spring)... but acknowledged that some might see this as a stretch. While Delver of Secrets didn't make Conley's Top 10 list for all of Innistrad, it did make his "Top 3" mini-list for blue, saying it was one of the cards he was most interested in working on.

My goal isn't to call anyone out on this front, but more to illustrate that even the experts can miss (or at least underrate) some of the most powerful cards.

I think that in this case, that came from not realizing what a very little amount of tuning (playing lots of spells and a four-pack of Ponders) could do for the Delver.

So what makes the Delver so awesome?

Essentially, it redefines a lot of what it means to be a blue creature. Delver of Secrets is aggressive. It is a one-drop... you can play it before the stage in the game where you "need" to keep your lands open for Mana Leak or whatever. You can put other decks on notice (while threatening to take over with the aforementioned Mana Leak). And what was really underrated initially: Delver of Secrets hits hard!

Have you ever seen one of those draws where one player goes turn-one Delver of Secrets, turn-two two Delvers? I mean 9 damage coming in on turn three, over the top of potential blockers, is impressive almost unconditionally... but from a blue deck? Ka-pow!

Factor in all that stuff about holding back the old Mana Leaks, and you have something pretty special.

4. Okay, it's good... but which is better, Delver of Secrets or Snapcaster Mage?

Opinions differ.

Part of the distinction is clouded by the fact that the cards are so often played next to one another. Sure, Snapcaster Mage can be played in more decks (for example, control decks will often play some), but it is rare to see Delver of Secrets without Snapcaster Mage.

Between Delver of Secrets and Tarmogoyf, the RUG Delver deck can get the quick drop on most opponents, and the medium counterspells and removal can keep opponents on their heels, hold a lead, push blockers out of the way, and generally disrupt.

But yeah, everywhere from Standard to Legacy... and with Lingering Souls banned in Block? Who knows?

6. So... more Delver of Secrets + Snapcaster Mage (like peanut butter and chocolate). Any other cards we usually see played together?

Hexproof creatures are perfect not just because they can be so powerful (Invisible Stalker with Runechanter's Pike is simply a race... and who wants to be on the wrong side of an unchecked Geist?), but because getting your guy killed in response to an equip is just a blowout frowny-face.

You have probably seen lots of Delver decks in recent months; this is the one that took down the most recent GP:

We are going to touch on the Dungeon Geists issue in just a bullet or two, so I will focus on the other, which is actually the larger departure for the Standard Delver deck (while it also bears mentioning that Watanabe's winner played triple Pikes and no lifegain Equipment in the main).

Gitaxian Probe—up until Watanabe's weekend—was an institution in Delver decks. You just had four. That was it.

There are different schools of thought on this; Josh Ravitz has an interesting idea, which is that as you expect more, better, players to be on UW Delver decks, Gitaxian Probe is less important. The sideboarded games typically see players with Mana Leak in the sideboard, so you don't even need to know if they have the counter (they don't). So why not just play Thought Scour, which can actually set up your Snapcaster Mages and Moorland Haunts?

8. I see that deck has a lot of Gut Shots. Why? (And how does he even cast that with his blue and white lands?)

Gut Shot is one of the best cards against the viable non-Delver of Secrets decks. Red-green variants from beatdown to Naya Ramp rely on cards like Birds of Paradise to get the jump on other decks. Gut Shot—being "zero" mana (especially in a deck that can't cast it legitimately)—lets a white-blue deck get a similar mana advantage, interactively, to a red-green deck advancing actively with an actual accelerating one-drop.

While we have seen some mixing and matching around Phyrexian removal (one Dismember in Shenhar's main, two Dismembers and no Gut Shots in some earlier builds), I would hazard that Gut Shot will emerge as the Phyrexian signature card of choice.

Beyond the body (and evasion), Dungeon Geists has a pretty awesome ability, especially in the context of a format full of Titans (at least some slice of the format looks like that). Subtly, Dungeon Geists is just hard for another Delver deck to deal with effectively. As we said before, most of the Dismembers are being traded down for Gut Shots; and a 3/3 is just bigger than a 1/1, 2/1, or 2/2 (as are the typical sizes).

The Spirits deck (and this copy is pretty similar to the deck played to the #PTDKA Top 8 by certain Hall of Fame players) is a Delver deck, but splashes black. Black gives the deck primarily the back side of Lingering Souls.

We have seen Pikes for Stalkers, Swords for Stalkers (and whomever)... Batterskulls... but even the straight white-blue decks have some variations. Check out Caleb Durward's deck from the StarCityGames.com Invitational:

But where an innovator closes one door, another one often opens; Caleb kept Geist of Saint Traft (another very Equipment-eligible threat), one of the best solitary threats in the format... but somewhat vulnerable to... "blockers."

Well, you slap a Spectral Flight onto a Geist and you don't see any Wolf tokens jumping in front to take down the big man at the cost of 4 life. You don't see any ground-token chump-blocking against a first-striking Pike. The Geist just goes straight "to the air" and you have 8 in, and a two-or-three-turn clock.

Although we still don't know what will be in the Helvault, I hope you find yourself a bit better prepared to face Delver of Secrets. This is a creature—a powerful, even wonderful creature—that you can be sure you will face in Standard, or anywhere, really.

As the sensei used to say, "Study and grow strong." And if you can't beat 'em?... (you know)...